The Coats, Boats and Little Scrotes Tour 2023 – Day Three Wednesday 11th January

Wednesday 11th January

At the risk of these becoming a daily journal of me moaning about my sleep patterns, again my rest was fitful. I was awake at 2.40am, went to the loo and then managed a glorious sleep until 8am. Today was a rest day so this was fitting.

I say rest day. Regular readers will know this is seldom the case for a full day. It was a relaxed start to the day, so we lounged in bed for a bit. In fact, it was 10am before we were up and doing stuff. That stuff involved showering and thinking about where we may go for breakfast with no park to go to…yet.

We kept it simple and went to Dennys. It was the one next to the Olive Garden we went to a couple of days ago at Lake Buena Vista. There was no waiting for a table and we were in and ordering by 10.30.

Louise – Some skillet thing

Me – A dipping beef sandwich thing

Emily – A Beyond Cheeseburger

It was very tasty and as we were finishing up we Facetimed Rebecca. As we were doing the obligatory silly noises and waving at Dougie, our server returned to the table and joined us in doing so. She was lovely and earned herself a 22% tip, which still only made the bill $65. It isn’t fine dining, but if you want filling up with decent food for a good price, Dennys will do that for you.

Whilst we had dined, discussions turned to Louise’s ongoing condition. She had an ear infection and despite going to the doctor a few days prior to travel, had not been able to secure any antibiotics, probably as the UK seemed to have run out of them! It was causing her some grief and we made the decision to bite the bullet on this rest day and go and see our old friends at Centracare which was across the road from where we were eating. It would be good to catch up with them all again and use our frequent visitor discount!

The whole thing took 90 minutes and $336 but we emerged with what turned out to be the strongest antibiotics known to man and they sorted Louise out in short order in the coming days. Despite being told by our UK GP that “it would clear up by itself” the American doctor assured us it wouldn’t and it needed killing with fire, or with the more powerful drugs they prescribed.

We went back to the resort to “take care of business” and we were out again around 1pm and heading for the Skyliner. It was a ten-minute walk from the room and we were headed for Hollywood Studios. I had secured a Fantasmic Dinner Package for today so the plan was to do that around 3.30 and do what we could in the park until the show later that night.

The journey to DHS was short and enjoyable. It was Louise’s first Skyliner experience and despite her absolute fear of heights, all went well.

After a nice journey to the park, once we got in, the place was a mess. The wait times were horrific for everything and my conclusion now is that of all the parks, DHS suffers the most from Genie+ and whatever else is going on.

The only thing we could do was Muppets so we did.

With every other wait time being over an hour at best we decided to go to the Tap House for a drink and sit down.

I had a beer flight as the Skyliner meant I was not driving.

The ladies had some Tequila thing.

We stayed there until about 3.30 and it is a lovely place to “hang out”. It was time for our ADR at Mama Melrose so we wandered over there and checked in.

We were seated immediately

and our Dinner Package included two courses. We were still pretty full from Dennys earlier but if we’d paid for two courses, we were eating two courses. We started with Fried Mozzarella

oh, and a bread service!

Me – Chicken Parm

Emily – Mama’s Pasta

Louise – Meatballs

It was all very tasty but a bit quick and we were out in less than an hour. The Fantasmic Package is $54 each. A bit pricey for the food involved but it saves any long waits to get into Fantasmic and you have good reserved seating right in the middle.

Our early finish meant we could make the 5pm Beauty and the Beast show so we walked over to that now. We stopped on the way to get some water so that Emily could take some painkillers. Her face had gone inexplicably flushed and we could only put it down to the Tequila thing she had at the Tap House.

We were sat behind the desk so I could check that they started on time, and they did.

The wait times for almost everything were still silly, but Star Tours was down to ten minutes so we did that next.

The ride was ruined by some kids behind us. There were four of them, probably ranging from six to twelve, riding with their parents who managed to ignore them despite their ridiculous racket. It’ll sound like I’m over egging it now, but they literally screamed and shouted at the top of their voices for not only the entire ride, but the queue and the pre-ride instructions. Once we got going we could hear nothing but…

“Aurora!” screamed by the boy of the group repeatedly and endlessly at a decibel level not good for human ears. I know they are kids at WDW and probably excited but these were just horrible and well done to the parents for completely ignoring them ruining the experience for everyone in that “ship”.

After that, we needed a drink so we went back to the Tap House.

Emily moved away from the tequila and had California Sunsets instead. I had a cider.

Despite the cooler temperatures, this was still a lovely place to sit and people-watch from.

We stayed there until 7pm. I had a wee and we wandered down to the Fantasmic “stadium”. The wait times were still silly by the way.

We waited for about half an hour.

We got a bit bored and demonstrated why we don’t include many photos of ourselves in these posts.

At 8pm the show started. Now, I have to admit that emotions were felt. Emily blubbered through the entire thing and I have to say I felt a lump in the throat. This felt like “old school” Disney and our trips in the past. My Dad came to mind.

I posted a couple of videos if you wanted to see some of them. The start of the show and the end.

This was another sign and reminder of WDW getting it right again and nobody or nowhere else being able to come close in my view. Did I mention that we loved this? The changes to the show have also enhanced it. It’s punchier now, with less of the water projection stuff and more live action.

We did the slow shuffle out of the show in the big crowds, feeling all warm and a-glow.

There was a decent queue for the Skyliner but it was soon over and we were airborne and on our way back to the resort.

On the way home we could see the Epcot fireworks going off and I photographed them badly.

We were back at the resort and room in no time. I managed to read until all of 10pm, until sleep took me.

Till the next time……